Tobin Sprout has been one of the most important songwriting voices for a long while, part of Guided By Voices' "classic lineup" if you will. Now, with the band's fourth post-reunion album just getting released, Sprout talks to PopMatters about why he left the band to begin with, being inspired by Brian Epstein's death, and his surprising side-career with children's literature.

Tonight I will go belly-up in some kind of mental cloud, a meandering consideration of what tribute shows are really about, and why Guided by Voices deserves one, and what they were really about -- and that will lead to thoughts about prophecy and nihilism and Ralph Waldo Emerson and postmodernism.

This whole lo-fi thing, in its current form, is an affectation—a performance, a pose, the indie community’s response to “Vogue”. And this upcoming Guided By Voices tour will only enhance the performative aspects of the supposedly authentic aesthetic they have been championed for canonizing.